“Empire of Consuls: Consulship, Sovereignty, and Empire in the Revolutionary Atlantic (1778-1848)”

Empire of Consuls: Consulship, Sovereignty, and Empire in the Revolutionary Atlantic (1778-1848) is a history of how Atlantic consuls negotiated an international consensus on citizenship and human rights, how they shaped ideas of national sovereignty, and how they developed new practices of empire- and nation-building in the Age of Revolution. By claiming expert knowledge and authority in identifying individuals, promoting commerce, and surveilling migration, consuls ushered in a revolution in Atlantic governance. Using sources from more than a dozen archives in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, my dissertation models an “outside-in” approach to Atlantic state-making with a particular focus on the United States during the period from national independence to the settlement of the U.S.-Mexican War in 1848.